In Term 2, 415 students from Years 7 – 12 participated in the Australian Geography Competition (AGC), testing their geographical skills and knowledge against students from all around Australia.

A number of student geographers at our school performed to a very high level in the competition, with two students achieving in the top 1% in their year level across Australia. Thomas 7LTHO achieved in the top 1% in Australia, while Emma 9ECU (Year 9) was the top achieving student for South Australia. Additionally, 17 students achieved High Distinctions, 34 achieved Distinctions and 52 achieved Credits.

One of my favourite movies is an old one - Goodbye Mr Chips. At the start of my career as a teacher, I aspired to be that ‘Mr Chipping’ and while I know I haven’t even come close to that, I hold relationships with students and colleagues as very important.

I felt, and still feel, a strong affinity with the school hymn that the children famously sang at Mr Chips’ school. In particular I found these words challenging:

In the evening of my life I shall look to the sunset,At a moment in my life when the night is due.And the question I shall ask, only I can answer.Was I brave and strong and true?Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?

‘That’s schmaltzy’, you might say, but I believe these words reflect real Christian values and embody a reality with which it would be good to feel comfortable. What a challenge to live our lives to be brave and strong and true. These words conjure up pictures in the mind of martyrs refusing to recant their faith in Christ, of the heroic acts of soldiers sacrificing their lives for others. High ideals indeed.

I think that at the end of my life I would be very satisfied if I had done my best to live out these values. It’s not always easy to be brave, strong and true, so I know I will make mistakes and fall short of these ideals, but I still hold that these are values of the utmost importance.

At Concordia, through our Restorative Practices, we challenge our students to make good the damage done by their poor choices and to restore relationships to a basis of respect.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us not only to be forgiving, but also to stand up for what is right.

Please note that we have recently received the 2018 NAPLAN results for students in Years 3, 5, 7 & 9 from ACARA. These results are normally received in schools much earlier than this, but due to some delays ACARA’s distribution has been later this year and they were posted to parents today.

NAPLAN results provide us with helpful information about student achievement levels that we use in conjunction with a range of other assessment data to help us determine student progress and more importantly how we can best support students in their learning going forward.

Please feel free to contact Clay Watkins, Assistant Head of Middle School, or Cheryl Jercic in Learning Support should you wish to discuss these results further.

During Weeks 7 & 8, the Year 9 students took their school learning out of the classroom and into the Adelaide CBD where they spent the week learning about the workings of the city while developing a proposal to energise part of the CBD to address a need or provide a benefit to the community.

Students enjoyed their time in the city, embracing opportunities to be risk-takers, communicators, thinkers, and to act in a principled and balanced manner. They undertook various investigations and visited places such as the Botanic Gardens, SA Museum, Central Markets, as well as enjoying some leisure time at City Beach. They also had an opportunity to interview various people who work in the city.

The experience of the students can be summed up in the following comments:

“This week I developed self-management skills (learning to be more organised) and social skills (working well with others). I’ve learnt that I need to work on my communication and research skills.” Teagan

“Our group learnt to collaborate with each other in completing the tasks. We also worked well together to develop questions for our interview with Jo Russell-Clarke.” Joe

“Despite getting a bit lost in the Botanic Gardens, we were able to find our way around the city well. We learnt to be thinkers and risk-takers trying to find where we needed to go.” Alana

Thank you to the members of our school community who help make this program happen by offering their services to be interviewed by the students. This is a very valuable component of the City Week program.

After three terms of investigating, planning, taking action and reflecting, Year 10 students were able to “show” to the school community the products of their work in the Personal Project Showcase on Tuesday, 18 September. The Suaviter was transformed into a wonderful exhibition space by the wide variety of products and outcomes created for the Personal Project. While there were many standout pieces, the following students received awards for their particular projects:

“ENGAGE” Award

Awarded to students who, in 'Planning and Taking Action', produced a high quality and highly challenging product/outcome for their Personal Project.

Jessie 10SKL (for making a cigar box guitar)

Eli 10NMC (for rebuilding a car)

“ACHIEVE” Award

Awarded to the student who demonstrated excellent achievement across all four criteria of the Personal Project: Investigating, Planning, Taking Action, Reflecting.

Jessica 10PLO (for writing a dystopian novel)

“SERVE” Award

Awarded to the student who, through 'Taking Action' with their project, exhibited outstanding service to the community.

Olivia 10NMC (for creating a website to teach Braille)

Thank you to the members of the school community – parents, friends, staff and students – for supporting the Personal Project Showcase, and in particular, for supporting the Year 10 students throughout the journey of their Personal Projects.

We started with a student activity which gave us the opportunity to interact with students from other schools to discuss and debate the Australian Constitution. There was a diverse range of legal studies students, which allowed for differing perspectives from the young people of Adelaide on the Constitution and some improvements that could be made.

The proceedings of the day included two guest speakers. First, we heard from Brendan Grigg, a senior Law lecturer at Flinders University, then from Adjunct Professor Rob Fowler from Adelaide University. Both speakers have worked extensively in environmental law, making for two very informative talks that helped influence our findings.

The 2018 South Australian Constitutional Convention was an enjoyable experience held in Parliament House. An interesting part of the day was the question time with Senator Tim Storer, Dr Susan Close, Mark Parnell and Adrien Pederick. We had the opportunity to ask them questions regarding the topic of the day or questions about what it’s like to be a member of parliament.

The debate section of the Constitutional Convention was what everyone was looking forward to all day. We gathered in the House of Assembly and sat according to our views on the issue. It was interesting to see people from all different backgrounds, schools and areas' opinions and reasoning on the same issue. It also gave us an insider’s perspective on the processes used to make changes to our constitution.

The Year 11 and 12 classes recently went to the Magistrates, District and Supreme Courts where they were able to view the workings of our court system. They also attended a tour of Parliament House and question time. The students' enthusiasm and interest in understanding how our court system and parliament are able to keep society in sync with a multitude of changes in technology is a credit to both year levels. They are willing to question and analyse the systems we hold in high regard to set standards and resolve our legal disputes.

Last week we had a guest speaker come to address the Year 11 class. Anthony Mennillo is a Claims & Legal Advisor for the Medical Insurance Australia Group. He discussed what it is like to be a defence lawyer in a courtroom, presenting a High Court appeal, and the challenges associated with being a legal advisor to doctors.

The Australian History Competition is prepared by the History Teachers’ Association of Australia. Its primary goal has been to provide an interesting and challenging competition for students. It is aligned with the Australian Curriculum, and covers both historical knowledge and skills of historical inquiry, so all students who participated were faced with facts, skills and concepts they had studied. In 2018, over 30,000 students participated in the competition across Australia, from more than 400 schools.

This year, all Year 8 students, as well as Year 9 and Year 10 students who studied History in Semester 1, sat the competition. It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the performances of those individuals who excelled this year. The following students were awarded a High Distinction for the competition in 2018:

Year 8

Samuel 8AMA

Joshua 8AMA

Aaron 8LSI

Year 9

Michael 9MGI

Joseph 9KNIC

Year 10

The community sport zone comprising the area between the oval and tennis courts will soon be fitted with improved shelter and seating to help protect against harsh weather and excessive sun, as well as providing smart lighting to increase safety. This project was funded by the South Australian Government as part of the Fund My Neighbourhood initiative in late 2017 and it is anticipated that work will be completed during the 2018/19 summer holiday period.

We look forward to seeing the enhancements added to improve this shared space which is utilised by both Concordia College campuses as well as many members of the wider community.